“Every Day Matters” Bristol City Council Education Officer Says Of Attendance
The comment was made in a council meeting this month
“Every day matters,” was the comment made by a council officer in a meeting discussing school attendance in Bristol.
Executive Director for Children and Education, Hannah Woodhouse, was giving an update to Children and Young People Policy Committee.
She told councillors that although overall school attendance did improve by the end of the last academic year, that there was still some children and young people that were “severely absent”.
Woodhouse’s paper Children and Young People Committee Update Report, prepared for the committee said in advance:
‘We have started the new academic term positively in children’s and education services. Our focus in this academic year will be to continue our work to improve educational achievement for those living in disadvantage, including through a focus on attendance. It was pleasing to see that over the summer educational outcomes improved at all levels across the city, particularly so at GCSE/KS4 levels and KS5. KS2 improved although not significantly and there is further work to do at the primary level, although phonics results looked promising. We will do further analysis as we get data on the performance of vulnerable groups including pupils claiming free school meals. Attendance too has improved in Bristol but again there is further work to do to improve sustained attendance by all children.’
The performance data table taken to the meeting included that up to 31 August 2025.
The statistics on the Department for Education (DfE) year to date from 08 September 2025, found Bristol’s school attendance rate is currently at 93.37 per cent. The authorised absence is 4.35 per cent. And, the unauthorised absence rate is 2.28 per cent.
Further statistics about Bristol’s attendance data is available from the DfE: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/bc35a260-6b5d-4a55-7a1b-08de11c58191
At the committee meeting this month, Hannah Woodhouse said: “So you can see at the end of the school year last year we did see an improvement on the previous year in terms of overall school attendance certainly primary level. But we do continue to sit below the national average at secondary and special school attendance levels.
“And in the main as we’ve said before although there is a really significant group of young people who are not attending, really significantly, severely absent we call this group, and we are working to wrap services and support around those that very vulnerable group of children.
“There is a bigger group of young people who are not attending on a regular basis, above sort of 80 per cent but not as much as sort of 95 per cent. So what you can see is every couple of weeks young people missing school on a Friday or on a Monday. We do need to to look at that broad, what we call persistent absence, that broader group of young people making sure that they do attend school every day and that that matters.
“Because it does. We know that there’s a big correlation between overall attendance and achievement in schools, particularly for vulnerable groups. So we will again continue to support schools to be driving up attendance for for all young people and it’s got to be a focus for this year.”
There were no specific questions on school attendance by councillors in the meeting.
Home: https://backstagebristol.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chopsybristol.bsky.social
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@chopsybristoltt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backstagebristol
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chopsybaby